KoBo Analyser

User Guide

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Licence :CC-by-SA
Introduction

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What is KoBo Analyser?
KoBo Analyser was developed by Nick Imboden from
OCHA.
This tool is an Excel file with which you can, within a few
minutes and without any technical expertise, obtain some
preliminary analysis of the data of your survey.
Of course, some analytical expertise is still essential to
make sure that the results are properly interpreted.
It is available:
– by downloading the data of your survey from the KoBo
server using the "Excel Analyser" format.
– by downloading the generic file here:
https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/applications/ko
botoolbox/document/kobotoolbox-excel-data-analyser-
v123
(You then have to copy your data into this file.)

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Prerequisites
There are some prerequisites to be able to use the
KoBo Analyser:
– The questionnaire must be coded in the XLSForm
format, following the compatibility requirements
for the KoBo Analyser, and based on a predefined
analysis plan.
– The data collection must have been managed
through the KoBo platform. (It would also work if
you've used ODK Aggregate, an equivalent
product, but some adjustments of the Analyser
would probably be necessary.)

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Features

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 Overview

Sheets from
the XLSForm
Analysis sheets survey

Configuration sheet Survey results

(language, analysis settings…) from KoBo

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 Configuration

Advanced
settings
Language and
sheet names

Translations for
charts titles
and legends

Groups
thresholds
for numeric
analysis

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Interface of the analysis sheets
The analysis sheets are divided into 4 regions:
Main question being analysed Disaggregation of the results with
and corresponding chart respect to a secondary question

Options to exclude, ordering Statistical settings (model of number

of the results, etc. grouping, choice of numeric function)

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Analysis sheets
The sheets propose 6 different types of analysis:
– CHOICE: simple bar chart
– UNIQUE: simple pie chart
– VALUE: bar chart showing a specific answer to one
question, categorised by the options of another
question
– RANK: bar chart for a question where different
options are ranked (e.g. "What are your 3
favourite colours, in order?")
– SCORE: bar chart for a question where different
options are given a score
– COMPARE: bar chart comparing a number of
related questions having the same types of
answers (e.g. "yes/no/do not know")
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"analysis" column
A special "analysis" column can be added to the "survey"
sheet, where you can specify in which analysis sheets
each variable should appear.
Enter any of the codes "C", "U", "V", "S", "R", and
"COMPARE", as shown below. Also, the corresponding box
must be ticked in the advanced settings ("Config" sheet).
If you want a question to appear in the "Disaggregation"
drop-down menus, you can add the code "D" in this same
column.

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CHOICE sheet
The CHOICE sheet gives the simplest form of analysis,
showing the frequencies of different answers to a
particular question.

It can be used to display the different choices of single-

or multi-select questions, or also user-defined ranges of
values for numerical questions ("Number grouping").
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UNIQUE sheet
UNIQUE is similar to CHOICE but displays the results
as pie charts instead (all other sheets have bar
charts).

It can analyse single-select and numeric questions

only (i.e. not multi-select questions).
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VALUE sheet
VALUE is more complex. It calculates some global value for a
question, which is displayed at the top right of the main chart.
- For a "select" question, the calculated value is the percentage
of answers for a specific option of this question.
- For a numeric question, the calculated output can be chosen
from a list of numerical functions (average, median,…).
This value is then categorised for each option of a second
question and represented as a bar chart.
Example:

Global average
number of people
per shelter

Average number of
people per shelter for
each civil status

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RANK, SCORE & COMPARE sheets
The common characteristic of these 3 sheets is that
they are used to analyse a group of consecutive,
related questions which all have the same possible
answers (e.g. the same list of "choices").
Each of them is specific to distinct particular
situations.

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RANK sheet
RANK is used to easily analyse sets of questions which
establish a ranking (e.g., 1st, 2nd, and 3rd sources of
income), by defining a weighting for each rank.
It can accept series of single- or multi-select questions.

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SCORE sheet
SCORE is used to analyse series of questions for
which some kind of "score" is attributed to a list of
items (e.g., percentage of different food products
that have been damaged).
The scoring questions must be defined as either
single-select or numeric.

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COMPARE sheet
COMPARE is used to analyse and plot any series of
consecutive questions which all have the same types
of possible answers, but don't necessarily define a
ranking or a scoring (although they could).
The types of the questions can be single- or multi-
select, or even numerical.

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Data cleaning
It is sometimes necessary to make some changes to
the "survey", "choices" and "uncleaned_data" sheets
for the KoBo Analyser to work properly:
– Question labels (e.g. for display purposes)
– Question types (e.g. change a "calculate" type to
"integer" or "decimal" for the question to appear in
the drop-down menus of the KoBo Analyser).
– Complete missing data with some sensible values
if you want them to be included in the analysis
(e.g. "N/A", "do not know"). Do not forget to add
an option in "choices" sheet, if needed.
– Any other modification that was not included in the
coded XLSForm because of an incomplete analysis
plan.
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Export the analysis charts to a report
Select the chart(s) that you want to export.

Right-click, copy, and paste into your report.

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Thank you for your
attention!

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